NATURAL SCIENCES. 



of his century in the " Code of the School of Salerno," a work which is not 

 devoid of importance from a hygienic point of view, but which is very 

 imperfect in its treatment of the natural sciences. 



Although the light of science emanated chiefly from the Saracen schools in 

 Spain, it was not extinguished when the empire of the Caliphs was over- 

 thrown, and when reviving civilisation was once more threatened with an 

 invasion of barbarism. The Jewish nation picked up the scattered fragments 

 of the sacred arts of science, and divided them between the various countries 

 of Europe, where the rabbis for some time preserved the monopoly of real 

 learning. Physicians for the most part, often favourites and advisers of their 

 sovereigns, and even of popes, they had chairs at the Colleges of Bologna, 

 Milan, and Naples, and they substituted a new mode of teaching for the 

 " Etymologicon " of Isidore of Seville, which had been, since the seventh 

 century, the basis of scientific studies. The natural sciences amongst 

 others, zoology, mineralogy, and botany were doubtless represented in this 

 abridged dictionary of human attainments, but Isidore of Seville, at the 

 remote epoch when he wrote, was unable to treat them save in a superficial and 

 illogical fashion, for want of sufficient experience and observation (Fig. 82). 



The progress of the natural sciences was not very rapid during the twelfth 

 century, but there might already be perceived, in several writings on those 

 subjects, a tendency to observation of facts, though no one had yet conceived 

 the simple idea of interrogating Nature herself. Botany continued to have 

 the preference of early observers, and medicine was the starting-point of all 

 scientific investigation. Amongst the works which give the best summary of 

 the opinions and principles of science, as to plants, minerals, and animals, 

 useful or noxious, must be mentioned the " Jardin de Sante," compiled by 

 Hildegarde, Abbess of Biugen, as a very valuable collection of receipts to be 

 used in cases of illness. Hildegarde, like many other abbesses of her time, 

 was much addicted to the study of everything relating to the art of healing ; 

 she cultivated herself many medicinal plants, and ascertained their respective 

 properties. Thus a great many monasteries (Fig. 83) and convents possessed 

 not only botanical gardens, but also collections of fossils, minerals, shells, 

 herbs, and animals preserved by various processes of desiccation. This was 

 the origin of those encyclopasdise of the Middle Ages, vast descriptive compi- 

 lations, full of popular errors, it is true, but at the same time replete with 

 curious and interesting details, which have been published in every language 



